On International Human Rights Day 2018: Solidarity on all fronts for liberation!

December 10, 2018

Statement / ILPS-Philippines10 December 2018The US-Duterte regime is fast becoming isolated from the Filipino people and the international community for its gross and systematic violation of human rights. The solidarity of peoples against this tyrannical regime is ever broadening and deepening.

We have reason to celebrate International Human Rights Day this year. The courageous battle of the Filipino people for freedom and democracy is gaining whole-hearted support from peoples, nations and even governments and inter-governmental bodies.

The International People’s Tribunal in Brussels, Belgium found the regime guilty of crimes against the Filipino people. Entire governments, the European Parliament among them, have denounced the Duterte administration for its dastardly acts including the killing of lawyer Ben Ramos defending peasants massacred in Sagay, Negros last November. More parliamentarians and rights activists have supported the people’s struggles.

The US-Duterte regime is becoming desperate in its efforts to widen and intensify its mindless killing spree and open reign of terror. Extension of martial law in Mindanao and the whole country faces stiff opposition. Memorandum 32 ordering more armed forces in embattled regions of Negros, Samar and Bicol is met with greater resistance. Extra-judicial killings, arrests and filing of trumped-charges against leaders, activists, the rural and urban poor, environmentalists, human rights defenders and peace advocates are generating stronger maelstroms of protests.

The unshakeable stand of the Filipino people for their rights is not only founded on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. It is also grounded on their firm conviction to assert the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples (Algiers Declaration), including the right to armed struggle for liberation.

For fifty long years, the working-class leadership, the unity of workers and peasants, and the struggle for national and social emancipation have stood their ground in the Philippines. The struggle has survived martial law and successive regimes all backed by the support of the United States. It will continue on its existence, undefeated, unswayed, and ever victorious.

The Duterte regime now faces a severe domestic crisis on all fronts aggravated by the US strategic decline and greater inter-imperialist rivalries. The regime kowtows to rising China, surrenders the West Philippine (South China) Sea, and opens up labor, lands and resources for exploitation by tighter investments, loans and trade strangling the economy. The people are getting tired of foreign domination, the rule of local oligarchs and feudal lords, and the unchanging fascist character of the police and the military and the entire bureaucracy. No image-building, make-over and media spin can ever hide the truth from the people who have risen, organized and mobilized for their rights.

This Human Rights Day, we commemorate the heroism and bravery of the Filipino people in their local battles and global struggles against imperialism and fascist reaction. We likewise extend our warmest solidarity with all oppressed peoples and nations fighting for their rights towards a better future for all. Philippine affiliates of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) will work harder to consolidate and expand this valuable and indispensable solidarity.

Long live the struggle for freedom, democracy and justice!
Long live international solidarity!